As I was reading the section of Reflective Writing, “Reflection for Career Planning,” I began reflecting on my own time here at Geneseo. Right now I am approaching the end of my fall semester as a senior, and I genuinely cannot believe it. I feel like that my time here has happened so much faster than I was expecting, and yet at the same time sometimes it’s hard to remember what my life was like before Geneseo. I am a completely different person than who I was when I first came to this school; I didn’t know any of the people that have defined my time here at Geneseo, and I didn’t realize how my future goals would change.
I’m so lucky that the girls I randomly chose to form a suite with freshman year remain some of my best friends. Basically the only reason why I chose to form a suite with them was because they also wanted to live in the same suite and they seemed nice. That first week we followed each other around to all of the freshman activities, even if only one of us wanted to go because we didn’t want to say no. For me, the beginning of our friendship started the second or third Saturday we were here — we had been doing homework together all day in the Nassau common room when it started raining. It was one of Geneseo’s classic summer downpours, where the rain dumps all of the water at once. We were all tired of studying all day, so we decided to go outside in the rain. It was so much more rain than I had ever experienced. We ran up to the wooden swing that used to be outside of the RJ dining hall, and were laughing as we took turns pushing each other on the swing. We slipped down the hill so many times, but we were having so much fun we didn’t notice the mud. The rain only lasted about ten minutes, but for me, that’s when we became lifelong friends.
My second semester of Geneseo, I joined the all gender a cappella group, Emmelodics. I auditioned my first semester and didn’t make it in, so when I found out that they were having spring auditions I almost didn’t go. I decided at the last minute to sign up because I told myself that if I didn’t try out that I definitely wouldn’t be in a group, but by auditioning I at least had a chance. I remember when I got the call I was so excited that I was shaking. I showed up twenty minutes early to my first rehearsal, about 15 minutes before anyone else. I didn’t know anyone else in the group, so at first I was quiet and incredibly awkward, because everyone else there was friends. Now, I’m lucky to say that every member of Emmelodics is one of my best friends. Being a part of this group has defined my time at Geneseo. I have sang solos in front of a sold out Wadsworth Auditorium, when in high school I was terrified of singing in front of a small group, I have traveled to other schools to perform, and I have become friends with some of the most kind, intelligent, thoughtful people I have ever met.
When I first came to Geneseo, I wanted to be an astrophysicist. I love everything about galaxies, planets, stars, and figuring out how they work, that I couldn’t imagine not studying space for the rest of my life. The second day of my freshman year I went to the professor in charge of the telescope and asked if I could do research with him. I had no idea how research level telescopes worked and I only had a year of AP physics as experience, but I was so excited and he agreed. However, I quickly realized that physics wasn’t just learning fun concepts. My entire freshman year was spent doing physics — most nights I was in the Fraser library until 3 in the morning doing problems, and then I would wake up a few hours later for my 8:30 classes. Even though I spent all of my time on physics I wasn’t improving, but I didn’t want to give up because I loved the feeling of figuring out a problem. In high school I had never had the problem of not being able to understand a concept. Also for some of my classmates it seemed like the problems came naturally to them, so I convinced myself that the reason I wasn’t doing well was because I wasn’t good enough. My parents saw how unhappy I was convinced me to change my major after freshman year. Initially I was devastated — I had wanted to be an astrophysicist since I was little, watching documentaries about space on the Science Channel, so changing my major felt like I failed.
I am so thankful that I changed my major to biology. I now realize that although I liked space, I didn’t like physics — I just liked the feeling of getting a problem right. Now I love learning about how our bodies work and how we evolved. I even learned that I love birds. Last semester I took an ornithology class only because one of my friends was taking it but didn’t have much of an interest in birds. I learned so much about bird behavior, physiology, and how to identify different species. I regularly go birding now and get genuinely excited when I see a bird. Over Thanksgiving break, I went to Central Park just to see the Mandarin Duck.
My time at Geneseo has shaped me in ways that I could not predict. Next semester, I’m going to Big Bend National Park to dig for dinosaurs, and I could not be more excited. I’m also planning on presenting at a national natural history conference regarding my independent study about tree diversity in Geneseo. Recently, I applied to work at my dream institution and I cried after hitting the submit button because I never believed that it could even be a possibility for me to work there. My time at Geneseo, although difficult at times, has been amazing. I can’t wait to see how my life will change in the next five years.